THE INTELLIGENCE OF THE HORSE. 3 I 



ing kind. A nervous timidity renders the horse 

 untrustworthy, and this characteristic is more 

 strongly marked in animals of the highest breed, 

 for, contrary to the generally accepted opinion, I 

 think that the more ' spirited ' the horse the more 

 apt it is to give way to panics. It has always 

 appeared to me that the coarser-bred horses show 

 more intelligence than those of higher lineage, and 

 I have never seen thoroughbred animals that com- 

 pared, in what we may term reasoning powers, with 

 those used for heavy draught. I have asked the 

 opinions of some of the first trainers in Europe 

 upon this question of the relative intelligence of 

 the different breeds, and found them about equally 

 divided ; those who pronounced in favour of the 

 thoroughbred horses were influenced, I think, by 

 their belief that such animals were more readily 

 taught tricks, by reason of their more sprightly 

 dispositions, than those more coarsely bred. This 

 effort, on my part, to obtain some authoritative ex- 

 pression of opinion leaves the question in stahi 

 quo, and in support of the belief I hold I can 

 only relate certain cases that have come under my 

 observation. A year or so ago I had a coarsely 

 bred horse in training as a school horse, which I 

 taught to shut the door of the 7nandgc. This was 

 simple enough, as it might have been a mere 



